The Wesfarmers controlled group chose the building because of its proximity to the CBD and Flinders Street train station.

St Kilda Road office tenants have criticised (and vacated) the area which is only serviced by train. At it's peak St Kilda Road had more than 800,000 square metres of available office space, but no developer has proposed a new office in more than ten years.

SPOTLESS Group has leased an entire St Kilda Road office building, and will relocate its headquarters from the Melbourne CBD.

The cleaning services and management company, currently based at 350 Queen Street, has leased about 9200 square metres at the 549 St Kilda Road building previously known as AIG House.

The rent Spotless will pay has not been disclosed, but industry sources speculate it circles about $250 per square metre, per annum, before incentives (a lure usually offered in the way of a fit-out, or rental discount). This is low compared to the CBD, Southbank and Docklands.

AUSTRALIAN hotel owners Schwartz Family Corporation are selling a major St Kilda Road development site bordering Fawkner Park.

The family can expect around $53 million from the sale of The Fawkner Centre at 499 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, near the corner of Commercial Road, which acts as the Prahran and South Yarra suburb border.

The 6070 square metre site includes a 19-level, 21,377 square metre office pictured, right) that currently returns annual rent of $5.9 million.

CHINA based builder Sunnyland Investment Group has paid about $40 million for a major St Kilda Road development site which has the potential to yield at least two major apartment skyscrapers, and a ground floor shopping centre.

The purchase continues a trend of Asia-based investors swooping on inner-city sites and exploiting the state government’s problematic Melbourne @ 5 Million planning policy which encourages higher density redevelopment around existing roads and public transport – a strategy that hasn’t gone unnoticed to stressed drivers, bus and rail commuters in this election campaign.

Sunnyland’s latest acquisition is of the Clemenger BBDO House office at 472 – 474 St Kilda Road, on the south-west corner of Leopold Street.

GONE are the days when St Kilda Road complexes were limited to about 12 levels.

With the sky now the limit in regard to residential development in Melbourne – the value of a low rise office, with three street frontages at 472 - 474 St Kilda Road has ballooned over the past four years.

Sources say Industry Superannuation Property Trust has entered advanced negotiations with an as-yet-undisclosed residential developer, to sell the Clemenger BBDO House building for about $37.5 million.

TWO major development sites around the Shrine of Remembrance have sold, in deals expected to see low rise office buildings replaced with skyscraper apartment towers, with a potential end value of around $250 million.

In the biggest deal, an Asia-based developer is believed to have paid about $15.5 million for a 2274 square metre site at 35 Albert Road.

A 3096 square metre office building at the address is expected to be replaced with an apartment tower, which some speculate could soar higher than 30 levels and have an end value of about $130 million.

Meanwhile across the road, boutique developer Hamton has made one of its biggest forays into the high-density residential sector.

A UNIQUE luxury apartment with a “left-wing” connection has hit the market, as the developer of a new complex clears the last of the unsold apartments.

The double-storey “townhouse-style” apartment is on the ground floor of Ubertas Group’s 505 St Kilda Road complex, a project built on the site of what was St Kilda Road’s first high-rise office.

The 505 complex is absolute park-front, having a security door connecting residents to the massive Fawkner Park. The apartment itself (G02) includes two bedrooms, a study, two car parks, downstairs courtyard and upstairs balcony – both with a park vista.

PRIVATE developer Morry Schwartz is continuing to line his pockets, reaping $1.63 million from the sale of the fourth, of seven shops, at the ground level of his boutique 401 St Kilda Road complex.

All four sold shops have now sold to owner occupiers, including one to celebrity chef Shannon Bennett, which opened Cafe Vue at the premises last year.

Colliers International executive Bryson Cameron said the newest 401 retail owner plans to establish a boutique bottle shop in the St Kilda Road premises, which includes 148 square metres at ground level, and another 68 square metres in the basement.

DEVELOPER Hudson Conway is speculated to be paying about $22 million for a prominent St Kilda Road development site opposite Wesley College, capable of accommodating several high rise apartment towers.

Hudson Conway is believed to be in advanced negotiations to buy the St Kilda Road site, which Sydney-based developer Stockland purchased off Vision Australia for $28.3 million in 2007.

Stockland reportedly sold the subdivided Belgian Beer Cafe bluestone building that was part of the Vision Australia property, for a speculated $7 million last year, after undertaking a $2 million renovation.

HAVING reported a strong six-month profit of $51.5 million last week, Flight Centre Limited has confirmed it will hold onto a St Kilda Road office it purchased at the peak of the commercial property boom in 2007, and then renovated.

Flight Centre Limited’s Haydn Long confirmed the group will retain the 11-level office it occupies and leases to tenants, at 436 St Kilda Road.

The building was put to the market last April with a price tag of between $25 million and $30 million, and after the economic downturn had grounded property markets.

MAJOR Projects Minister Tim Pallas has appointed construction company Baulderstone to refurbish Melbourne’s Hamer Hall.

A total of $128.5 million will be spent on acoustics, new auditorium seating and staging systems, new connections to central Melbourne, St Kilda Road and the Yarra River, new foyer spaces and stairs, better disability access, escalators and lifts.

The redevelopment is a joint venture between Arts Victoria, the Arts Centre, Major Projects Victoria and architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall.

A year since coming to the market, Dexus Property Group is believed to be formalising the sale of its huge 509 – 515 St Kilda Road office for about $55 million.

Well placed industry sources say a residential-focussed developer is in exclusive due diligence to buy the 7-level, 19,687 square metre office building, which straddles a 6,070 square metre double-sized block near the corner of Commercial Road.

They speculate the office building currently on the site – home to copier and printer giant Fuji Xerox and insurance group Aviva which also leases naming rights - will be demolished to make way for between two to three new high rise towers, flanked by ground floor retail.